UK invoice without VAT

When you invoice without VAT in the UK

In the UK you only charge VAT if you are VAT-registered. Registration is compulsory once your VAT-taxable turnover passes the registration threshold — currently around £90,000 in a rolling 12-month period — and it is optional below that. Many sole traders and small businesses stay under the threshold and are simply not registered.

If you are not VAT-registered, you must not charge or show VAT on your invoices. You issue an ordinary invoice — often called a non-VAT invoice — that shows the amount due with no VAT line and no VAT number. It is still a proper invoice; it just has no tax component.

What a non-VAT UK invoice must include

A non-VAT invoice carries the same core details as any invoice, minus anything to do with VAT. At a minimum it should show:

• Your name or trading name and your address (as a sole trader this is your own name, plus a business/trading name if you use one).
• The customer's name and address.
• A unique invoice number that follows on from your last invoice.
• The invoice date (and the date of supply if it differs).
• A clear description of the goods or services you provided.
• The amount due — and, crucially, no VAT line and no VAT number, because you are not registered.

Sole trader vs limited company details

What you put at the top of the invoice depends on how you trade. A sole trader invoices under their own legal name and can add a trading name — for example “Jane Smith trading as Bright Web Studio”. There is no company number to quote.

A limited company has extra legal requirements even when it is not VAT-registered: the invoice (like other business stationery) should show the full registered company name, the company registration number, and the registered office address. If you run a Ltd, include those; if you are a sole trader, you do not have them and do not need to invent them.

What NOT to do

The biggest mistakes on a non-VAT invoice are all about VAT that is not really there. If you are not VAT-registered:

• Do not show a VAT number — you do not have one, and a made-up number is fraud.
• Do not add a VAT line or charge VAT on top of your price.
• Do not label any amount as VAT or describe your price as VAT-inclusive. Charging or showing VAT when you are not registered is an offence.

Getting paid

Not charging VAT does not change how you get paid — spell out your terms so there is no ambiguity. State your payment terms (for example payment within 14 or 30 days), a clear due date, and how the customer should pay you: usually your bank name, sort code and account number for a BACS transfer.

If a business customer pays late, UK late-payment rules may entitle you to charge statutory interest and a fixed recovery cost on a commercial debt. The exact entitlement depends on the situation and any agreed terms, so treat this as a general pointer and check the current GOV.UK guidance before you apply interest.

Create a UK invoice free with this tool

You can build a clean, professional non-VAT invoice here without any signup. Set the currency to GBP, fill in your details and your customer's, add your lines with prices, and leave VAT out entirely — there is no VAT line to worry about.

Once it is ready, download it as a PDF to keep for your records and to send on to the customer. It is all generated in your browser: the invoice figures, your sort code and account number, and the customer's information are never uploaded to a server.

Frequently asked questions